Weymouth police: Arson suspect says God doesn't like porn

Jon F. Fernald, 44, of Rockland told police that he had been a customer at the Amazing Intimate Essentials store in Weymouth and that he blamed the store for getting him addicted to porn, according to a police report.

WEYMOUTH – A Rockland man told police he set fire to an adult entertainment and novelty store in Weymouth because God doesn’t like pornography, a police report said.

Jon F. Fernald, 44, of 150 Martha Drive, Rockland, told police that he had been a customer at the Amazing Intimate Essentials store at 138 Bridge St. and that he blamed the store for getting him addicted to porn, according to the report.

“Mr. Fernald stated he wanted to get some revenge against the store so he set the fire because God does not like pornography,” Weymouth police Detective Timothy Browning wrote in his report.

Fernald is charged with igniting the three-alarm blaze Saturday morning that caused an estimated $1 million in damage and left him severely burned. The fire destroyed the building, which also housed two other businesses and an apartment. No one else was injured.

Fernald also told the officers he had been hearing voices telling him to light the store on fire for several days, according to the report.

Police interviewed Fernald in his room at the burn unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was taken with severe burns to his hands, arms, legs, face and head.

He was arraigned in his hospital bed Monday on charges of arson of a dwelling, breaking and entering and possession of a burglary tool. He was ordered held without bail pending a hearing to determine if he would pose a danger if released. A date for that hearing has not yet been set.

Fernald will also have to undergo a mental competency evaluation.

Melissa Mitchell, a public defender who represented Fernald at his arraignment, declined to comment Tuesday.

When police responded to the fire Saturday morning they found the building engulfed in flames. A witness said he’d seen a man start the fire and take off running. The witness pointed officers to a man running down Bridge Street, according to the police report. The officers caught up with the man, later identified as Fernald, and arrested him a short distance away.

When the officers asked him what happened, Fernald said, “I’m mentally ill and sometimes I do stupid things,” officer Edward Hancock wrote in a second police report on file in Quincy District Court.

Fernald told police that he’d taken a cab to the store Saturday morning, drinking a 40-ounce bottle of beer on the way, according to Browning’s report. He then stole two gas cans from a garage and used a sledgehammer he’d brought from home to break through the door of the store, the report said.

Fernald said he poured gasoline on magazines and DVDs and lit them on fire, then he felt a “flash and a lot of heat,” according to the report.

Page 2 of 2 - The fire spread to two other businesses, Serenity Nails & Spa and Epic Stone & Tile, and an apartment, all housed in the same building. The four occupants of the apartment escaped unharmed.

Reach Christian Schiavone at cschiavone@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @CSchiavo_Ledger.